Do Legal Grounds Exist To Invalidate The LPNY Nomination Of Warren Redlich For Governor & Was LPNY State Chair Mark Axinn Involved?

Is Sam Sloan, the unanimously elected State Representative for the Manhattan Libertarian Party (the largest LP Chapter in New York State), contemplating a lawsuit to overturn the results of Warren Redlich's gubernatorial nomination on the grounds that actual fraud took place at the State Convention of the Libertarian Party of New York? Was LPNY State Chair Mark Axinn involved? These issues were the subject of conversations overheard at the General Membership Meeting of the Libertarian Party of Queens County that was held on June 12, 2010 where three of the six nominated LPNY statewide candidates were in attendance.

The State Convention of the Libertarian Party of New York was held on April 24, 2010 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Albany, New York. Eligible delegates were carefully screened and given a red wrist band to evidence their right to vote. A number of LPNY members ineligible to vote and non-member convention attendees were also in the room. When it came time to vote on the gubernatorial nomination, Mark Axinn, the only announced candidate for LPNY Chair, handed out many scraps of cut yellow lined paper to each table. Dr. Tom Stevens, the unanimously elected State Representative for the Libertarian Party of Queens County (the second largest LP chapter in New York State) objected and confronted Mark Axinn telling him that it made no sense to carefully screen who was eligible to vote if he was handing out paper ballots to everyone with no way to determine who was voting or even if each person was only voting once. Mr. Axinn's response was that he ran elections on the "honor system" and proceeded to collect whatever ballots attendees placed into a hat that was passed around the room.

Sam Sloan, who was also a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, objected to the corrupt process that first denied him the ability to communicate with LPNY members eligible to vote at the LPNY State Convention and now, to a voting process that kept no track of who was voting or how many times people were voting. In the aftermath of the LPNY Convention, Mr. Sloan continued to pursue his lawsuit about being denied access to the list of eligible voting delegates but at the LPQC General Membership Meeting, he was overheard soliciting support for a possible new lawsuit seeking to overturn the nomination of Warren Redlich because of a voting process that made fraud possible, if not probable.

In retaliation against LPQC State Representative Dr. Tom Stevens for raising these and other issues, the LPNY State Committee, at a teleconference held on June 6, 2010, suspended his membership in the Libertarian Party of New York. Bob Cotton, Hudson Valley LP State Representative, has recently proposed new rules that would allow the LPNY to get rid of anyone who "files a lawsuit against party officials" or who engages in "personal criticisms (of party officials) on public or committee lists." Dr. Stevens stated, "I have no doubt that Sam Sloan will be the next target of those fighting to maintain the status quo in the dysfunctional Libertarian Party of New York."